LISTEN: Justin Hiltner & Jon Weisberger, “Walking Into Gloryland”

Artist: Justin Hiltner & Jon Weisberger
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee, and Brevard, North Carolina
Song: “Walking Into Gloryland” (featuring Ashleigh Caudill, Wendy Hickman, Corrina Rose Logston, Darren Nicholson, and Laura Ray)
Album: Room at the Table
Release Date: May 27, 2022

In Their Words: “Jon and I both adore bluegrass gospel, so when we began brainstorming our next release together the idea for a gospel project was a true lightbulb moment. We pulled a few songs from Jon and Ashleigh Caudill’s co-write catalog, wrote a new one together, and selected a couple of traditional hymns that I grew up singing. We love to treat music-making as an exercise in community building as well, so we tried to think outside of our usual circles to gather the pickers and singers for this set of songs. We’re so proud of the result and even more proud of the message in this EP!” — Justin Hiltner

“We’ve always firmly believed that bluegrass is for everyone. With this EP, we want to make the point that all of bluegrass is for everyone — bluegrass gospel, too.” — Jon Weisberger

Justin Hiltner · Walking Into Gloryland

Photo credit: Jammer Hiltner Photo

WATCH: High Fidelity, “The South Bound Train”

Artist: High Fidelity
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “The South Bound Train”
Album: Banjo Player’s Blues
Release Date: June 12, 2020
Label: Rebel Records

In Their Words: “Everything about ‘The South Bound Train’ just screamed High Fidelity to me, including the fact that it had been all but forgotten in the bluegrass collective consciousness. Jim & Jesse wrote and recorded it during their classic early ’60s era, but it was never released until the 1990s. It was such a strong song, especially with their arrangement, I thought, ‘We can’t not record this!’ Their version is led predominately by the banjo, and given High Fidelity’s love for the banjo, we wanted to put our spin on the song utilizing twin banjos. We have a history for pushing our own limits in this band, and I love the intensity of Jeremy and Kurt [Stephenson] singing and playing banjo at the same time on such an up-tempo number!” — Corrina Rose Logston, High Fidelity

“We had a blast making the video for this one, too. Corrina and I scouted the locations for the shoot with the help of a CSX employee that we met track-side in Northern Davidson County, Tennessee. He pointed us in the direction of an area with high volume and high speed rail-traffic, and that is where we went, finding the two locations that are seen in the video. It was very interesting being poised to shoot not knowing when a train was coming, but it all worked out great. We hope everyone else enjoys the video and the song as much as we did making it!” — Jeremy Stephens, High Fidelity


Photo credit: Amy Richmond